Tennessee Williams describes Jim the gentleman caller as 'the long delayed but always expected something that we live for'. This idea can be applied to many other instances in the play, where something is long delayed but at the same time expected by certain characters. There are instances of covering up the truth, especially by Amanda.
             Amanda has always tried to protect herself from the brutal reality of life. We can see this from the way she tries to convince herself that Laura should be 'fresh and pretty for gentleman callers', acting as if it will really happen, as if Laura will be whisked away into the sunset by a strong young man. Laura sees things in a whiter light and calmly tries to explain that she is 'not expecting any gentleman callers.' Amanda then returns to her ever present memories of Blue Mountain to act as another cushion to soften the blow of what is really happening.
             All that Amanda wants for her life is for her children to succeed perhaps better than she has. She reveals this in two places, when she tells Laura what to wish for, and when she tells Tom that her children's happiness would be all that she would wish for on the moon. She hinders them herself in her efforts, she trys to help Laura to be more confident in herself by providing her with the chance of meeting a gentleman caller, but ends up driving Laura further into herself in fear. She tries to get Tom to stay and help keep the family running, but this encourages Tom to want to fly the nest and get away from the pressures of the family life.
             The first time Amanda chooses to accept things aren't working is when she finds out Laura hasn't been going to the business school. She reacts in a typically Amanda way. There are subtle differences in her reactions. At first she seems to have planned it all out in her mind, the over dramatised movements and speeches such as 'yo
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